Can't fdisk newly installed disks

[Simon Gao]

Jerry McAllister wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 13, 2007 at 05:38:04PM -0700, Simon Gao wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am running into some problem with fdisk newly installed drives.
>>
>> >From boot message, these drives are found without problem:
>>
>> da3 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 0
>> da3: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
>> da3: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
>> Queueing Enabled
>> da3: 2048000MB (4194304000 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 261083C)
>> da4 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 1
>> da4: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
>> da4: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
>> Queueing Enabled
>> da4: 2048000MB (4194304000 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 261083C)
>> da5 at mpt0 bus 0 target 2 lun 2
>> da5: <IFT A12U-G2421 347D> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-3 device
>> da5: 160.000MB/s transfers (80.000MHz, offset 127, 16bit), Tagged
>> Queueing Enabled
>> da5: 670790MB (1373777920 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 85513C)
>>
>> There are device files in /dev:
>>
>> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    4,  14 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da3
>> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    4,  15 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da4
>> crw-r-----  1 root  operator    4,  16 Aug 13 17:14 /dev/da5
>>
>>
>> However, when trying to fdisk one of drives, I got following error:
>>
>> # fdisk -BI da5
>> fdisk: cannot open disk /dev/da5: No such file or directory
>>
>> sysintall failed also.
>>
>> The system runs  FreeBSD 5.2.1-RELEASE.
>>
>> Any help is appreciated.
>>     
>
> Did you try doing a  dd(1)  if some blocks of zeros to the drive
> before doing the fdisk.    On some older FreeBSD - don't remember
> which - I had trouble with some brands of SCSI disks and writing
> some zeros to it seemed to make it work.  I don't know why or even
> why I first tried it.   But it is simple enough to be worth giving
> it a try to see if anything improves.
>
>    dd if=/devf/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=512 count=1024
>
> ////jerry  
>
>   
This is what I got:

# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=512 count=1024
dd: /dev/da5: Operation not permitted


If I use sysinstall --> config --> fdisk to partition /dev/da5, I got
following warning:


WARNING:  A geometry of 85513/255/63 for da5 is incorrect.  Using  │
     │a more likely geometry.  If this geometry is incorrect or you      │
     │are unsure as to whether or not it's correct, please consult       │
     │the Hardware Guide in the Documentation submenu or use the         │
     │(G)eometry command to change it now.                               │
     │                                                                   │
     │Remember: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the          │
     │geometry is!  For IDE, it's what you were told in the BIOS         │
     │setup. For SCSI, it's the translation mode your controller is      │
     │using.  Do NOT use a ``physical geometry''.               


The cylinder, heads and sectors match what's found during boot up.

Simon